Empire of the Angels
by Ichabod Ebenezer
Summary: Nth Doctor part 10 of 12. The Doctor, Pandora and Obelix head to ancient China to see the First Emperor and answer some age old mysteries. Unfortunately, they won't like the answers. Twenty-five hundred years in the past, with no Tardis, facing Weeping Angels and something worse, with the history of the world at stake. Pray for the emperor's newest advisor.
1. The First Emperor

Chin Zhu dug furiously, reaching into his sack occasionally to drop a bean into the loosened soil. He filled the hole with dirt and tamped it down with his foot while continuing down the row. He was working in the failing light of late evening despite the ache in his knee. In fact, it was that ache that led to his urgency. It meant that the wet season was coming earlier this year than normal, and any seed not established by the time it came would float away when the floods came.

The rest of the village was out as well. Old wounds from the times of the Warring States were flaring up amongst the older men, and they all agreed, the rains would come soon.

Zhu stood up, stretching his aching back, when he happened to catch a star in the sky begin to move in a slow arc. A good omen. He paused in his work to watch it, then called out to the other villagers, working their own fields, but it turned out he hadn't needed to. The star moved slowly, but soon became as bright as the noon day sun. There was a loud explosion, and the star burst even brighter, then blasted down to crash into his neighbor's field near the tree line.

Earth blasted free, and the ground shook. Smoke rose in a great pillar, obscuring the view, and darkness reclaimed the night. Villagers were rushing toward the meteorite and shouting excitedly. Zhu dropped his bag of seed, and his adz, and started walking toward the pillar of smoke barely visible in the dark.

Then he saw something that made him run the other way. Fire. The fields had been allowed to grow fallow from the previous harvest, and dry grasses covered the ground. They were now catching fire from the heat of the impact, and spreading quickly. "Fire!" he yelled, running toward the well at the village center. He continued to yell as he ran, and the other villagers took up the cry.

Women were coming out of their houses, carrying buckets, and Zhu arrived to grab the first. He ran back, ignoring all pain, knowing that any hesitation could mean the loss of the village, or at least their livelihood. He must have sloshed half the water out of the bucket by the time he got to the fire, but he knew speed was more important than quantity. He threw the remaining water at the very edge of the fire, catching mostly unburnt grass, hoping to make sure it stayed unburnt. The important thing was to contain their losses.

One of the other villagers, a younger man by far than he, arrived next with his own bucket. Zhu pointed out a good spot to throw it, and the man followed his directions. Zhu then handed the man his bucket, and the man ran back to the village with both of them.

Another man was coming quickly, and Zhu could see the dark silhouettes of several more behind him. Zhu stayed to give direction, watching the fire carefully, and throwing dirt on it when no one was there with a bucket.

Before long, there was a bucket brigade set up, with each member of the village - men, women and even children, taking the bucket from the previous person and handing it on. Zhu stayed at the edge of the fire and threw bucket after bucket, handing them back to the line. It wasn't long before they got the better of the fire. They continued to throw buckets full of water at the rock in the center of the pit until steam stopped coming off of it. Finally, it was safe, and Zhu passed on the word to bring torches they could see by.

Once they'd gotten a few, the men of the village gathered around, and climbed down into the crater. The meteor was half submerged in water, and covered in mud, but all the men agreed that if one squinted, it looked remarkably like the upper torso and head of a woman.

* * *

In the morning hours before sunrise, Zhu was woken by the sounds of trumpets. "What is that, Zhangfu?" his wife asked fearfully.

"Rise and dress," Zhu commanded. "Only a member of the imperial court would be announced this way. We must be ready to serve them when they arrive. Start the fire, put on the kettle. Be ready to cook something if they wish."

Zhu threw on his simple farmer's pants and robe, then stepped outside and slipped into wooden-soled sandals. He unfurled a flag, and set it in the hole in his doorframe, made for it. The rest of the villagers were scurrying about, lighting torches, hanging flags, and clearing the dirt street for the visiting dignitaries. Surely they were here about the heavenly stone that fell to earth, but how did they know, or get here so soon?

The trumpets sounded again, and the villagers all lined up outside their houses, heads bowed. Zhu's wife joined him at his side. A regiment of thirty archers entered the village in two straight lines and passed on through. When they reached the far side, they spread out and circled the village. They were followed by the Imperial Guard, then an ornate palanquin carried aloft by eight burley men. The trumpeters followed the palanquin, and finally another troop of archers.

The whole procession stopped at a command from inside the palanquin. The guards gave a fierce cry, and stood at attention. Two of them left their position and came around to lower a staircase from the carriage. The silk curtains parted, and out stepped a tall man. His hair, pulled back in a high and tight silk wrapping, was streaked with white. He stopped at the first step and surveyed the village.

Zhu and the others bowed deeply at the sight of Li Si, chancellor to the emperor. They remained in this position as Chancellor Li walked the rest of the way down the steps. Two other men followed him out of the palanquin. The first was ancient, with a white beard that reached nearly to his feet. He chose his steps carefully as he walked, stooped over and clutching at his robes. His eyes could barely be seen behind his bushy white eyebrows, but suggested a serene smile. The second was young, and walked with proud bearing, clutching a tablet to his side. His robes, though clean and well kept, were not the finery of a dignitary. When he reached the ground, he turned his eyes to the heavens above, where the clouds had gathered round like a clenched fist.

The emperor's chancellor spoke in a loud, strong voice. "A rock from the heavens fell here," he said. He looked around at the villagers who were still bowing. He gave no command for them to stand. "Bring it here!" he commanded.

Zhu snapped to action. He stepped forward, and several of the others broke ranks as well. They had brought it into the village the night before and cleaned it off. The men gathered and ran off to collect the stone.

Yu grabbed Zhu by the sleeve and spoke in an urgent whisper. "What can we do? They mustn't see it!" Several of the others nodded in agreement.

"Don't you think I know that?" Zhu said. "I broke my best chisel trying to destroy it." A thought occurred to him. "Yu! Fetch some water from the well. Gao! Bring some lime from your field. It is closest. We'll fill it in with paste."

Both men headed off quickly, and joined the rest of them as they placed the stone on some burlap for carrying.

Zhu grabbed a handful of lime and dipped it quickly in the water, then smeared it onto the offensive stone. Most of it stuck, and it blended surprisingly well with the color of the stone. "It will have to do," he said.

The men each grabbed a corner of the burlap and hefted the stone into the air. They carried it back to the procession and laid it down on the dirt road. They stepped back, and bowed again deeply, saying nothing.

The young man with the tablet gasped when he saw it, and came close. He acted as though he wanted to touch it, but didn't dare to. The old man just laughed, a high merry laugh. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, nodding excitedly.

Li Si pushed between the two and regarded the rock. "Someone has been shaping the rock." He scanned the men who had carried it. "Step forward!"

Nobody stepped forward, and nobody made eye contact. Finally, Zhu stepped forward, coming to one knee and looking pointedly at the ground in front of the chancellor's feet. "By the heavens, no one shaped the rock. It fell like this, Great Master Li!" He returned to his original position.

Li Si regarded them silently for a while. "Xu Fu! Can this be true?"

The white haired man shuffled up to the stone and knocked at it with his cane. "It can be! Oh, yes it can! He modestly reminds sir that he predicted it!" He began laughing again, more subdued this time.

"Wang Changdong!" Li Si called loudly, watching Xu Fu with disapproval. A young man in simple robes stepped out of the palanquin, and rushed to Li Si's side, bowing. "Wang Changdong, does the heavenly stone still please you?"

With shaking hands, Changdong walked around the stone to view it from all angles. "It does, great master Li. It certainly does."

"Guards! Place it in a chest and take it with us," Li Si commanded.

Just then, the skies opened up, and a sheet of rain moved in, soaking them all. Li Si headed back to the stairs to avoid the worst of it. He stopped when he heard the young man with the tablet gasp. "Great master Li!" the man called out.

Li Si returned in a foul temper. "What is it?" he demanded.

"The stone!" the young man said, pointing.

Li Si looked at it again. The lime paste was washing away, revealing words carved upon the stone. He too gasped, not believing what he read.

"The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided," it read.

"Who shaped this stone?" Li Si demanded again. He whipped around to take in the whole of the village. "Who carved this message?" he yelled at the top of his voice.

The entire village remained bowed and silent.

A hand appeared at the curtains of the palanquin. "Li Si," called a voice.

A look of fright came over Master Li's face, and he rushed back to the staircase. He climbed it tentatively.

There followed a whispered conversation. Several tense minutes passed as the men in the village, still bowing nearly double, looked at each other in fright. Finally Master Li descended the staircase again. "Guards! Destroy the stone!"

The man in the plain robes ran to stand in front of the meteor. "Great Master Li! Please let me take it. The emperor's army will be imbued with the heavens' might! The rock itself and the message do not matter, it will be pulverized and all offense wiped out. Please let me take it!"

Master Li held up a hand to the guards and looked back toward the palanquin for a response. The emperor's hand re-emerged and waved them off. "Collect the stone," Master Li said to the guards.

He lifted his soaking robes and returned to the staircase. The others followed after him. He stopped at the top of the stairs and turned, regarding the villagers again. "Archers! Kill them all."

Zhu and the others who had collected the stone had known their fate from the moment it began raining. Most of the rest of the villagers panicked and ran, but they remained where they were, still bowing. Zhu looked up, his eyes finding his wife's. They were joined like that in the moment that the arrows struck.

* * *

The doors to the Tardis opened, and the Doctor stepped out, smiling broadly and taking in the view. Pandora followed, wearing a red silk, floral robe with gold trim, and carrying her box as usual. Her hair was done up in a tight bun, and she wore powdered makeup and red lipstick. "Obelix! Kom!" She waited for the dog to come trotting out, and closed the doors behind them.

They were in a pleasant, hilly region with wildflowers growing everywhere she looked. There was a light breeze that carried the faint smell of ocean, and helped to take the edge off the heat of the day.

Pandora looked around. There were no roads nearby, but there was a town in the distance in one direction. "So this is ancient China, huh? "What dynasty again?"

"The Qin Dynasty," he said excitedly.

"Right," she responded, rubbing her chin and considering making a joke of some sort. "And why here? Why now?"

"Come on, Pandora! Can't you smell the history?" the Doctor said. He took her by the hand and began walking briskly toward the settlement to the North. It's 210 B.C. The very first emperor of a unified China is on the throne. You probably know a lot of little things about China, but have no idea when they happened. You know the Great Wall? The Terracotta Warriors? Those were all this guy! Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Obsessed with immortality. He sent learned man to the length and breadth of China looking for an elixir of life. He poisoned himself to death taking mercury tablets, believing ironically that they would prolong his life. There's a lot of little things too, things you probably don't remember from history class. He unified the warring states, he standardized on weights and measures, he developed a style of writing they still use today, to some degree at least. He was an amazing person. It's one thing to read about it, and trust me, it's a whole 'nother thing to walk into his palace and shake his hand."

"Can't wait to do just that. Hey, does it say anything about his progressive attitude toward women's rights? Because I've kind of heard otherwise about the Chinese, traditionally."

"Are you kidding, Pandora? They are gonna love you. Do you realize no one in China will see a blonde again for another four hundred years? They'll probably write songs."

Pandora laughed. "Just keep that psychic paper handy in case I need to be a queen or something."

The Doctor patted his breast pocket.

The two of them got to the base of the hill and followed a couple wagon ruts that winded through the hills toward town. When they came around one last hill, the area opened up into a large valley. The town was there, if it could be called that. There was a square mile or more of tents and shanty houses, cheaply built and looking too old to stand. Two large structures loomed above the houses, much newer, and crafted with care. The imperial banner flew from the crest of both. The first was a palatial structure built of fresh wood and paper, with a bright red tiled roof. The second was more functional, with tall wooden walls and a flat roof. Smoke came from several spots around it. Guards stood outside a closed gate, and there were sounds of activity coming from within.

Beyond that, there was a great step pyramid. Lines of workers were carrying heavy loads both into and out of the pyramid.

"We've _got_ to visit that before we leave," the Doctor said in awe. "No one's been in it since the emperor's death."

"How come I haven't heard about that?" Pandora asked in amazement. "That's got to be bigger than the one in Giza."

"Mostly because they buried it soon after. It wasn't discovered again until _long after_ they came up with that 'Seven Wonders' nonsense.

"Why'd they bury it?" Pandora asked.

The Doctor smiled. "Keep it secret, keep looters out, maybe. No one knows for sure."

They stood at the outskirts of the city, taking it all in, then Pandora headed toward the palace. "Where are you going?" the Doctor asked.

Pandora turned. "Is this a test or something? You said you wanted to see the emperor. He'll be in the palace, right?"

"I said he was an amazing person. We'll get to him later. The guy I want to see will be over there," he said pointing to the other large building. "I don't even know his name. History never thought to record it, but he's the guy. The artist, the architect. He designed the emperor's tomb. Rumor has it, it's got rivers of mercury, and the entire sky painted above. He also supervised the construction of the Terracotta Warriors. Anyone could have made a few molds and pumped out several thousand soldiers, but they all would have looked the same. This guy made each and every one of them different. Different facial features, different hairstyles, details in the armor. He customized the mix for the clay too. Even in your time, no one can replicate the recipe. Let's go find out who he is."

He headed off toward the low building, Obelix at his side, and Pandora following behind. He straightened up as he went, walking like he owned the place by the time he approached the guards. He held up his psychic paper to them. "Open for inspection," he commanded.

The guards eyes opened wide when they saw the paper, and they stood aside.

The Doctor remained where he was, but Pandora missed his cue and continued forward. He held out an arm to hold her back. "Well?" he said, looking back and forth between the guards.

One of them rushed to open the doors for them, nearly dropping his weapon in the process. The Doctor paid them no attention as they passed inside. Pandora hiked up her robes and got as close to the Doctor as she could. "What did the paper say?"

"No idea," the Doctor said out of the corner of his mouth.

They were in a room as large as a football pitch, and the sound inside was deafening. Tens of thousands of artists shouted back and forth as they worked in small groups, mixing clay, molding pieces, firing, assembling, painting. There were others forging actual weapons and working leather. Hammers clanged upon anvils and steam hissed as they quenched the bronze.

Taking up the majority of the room were thousands upon thousands of six foot tall clay soldiers, assembled and ready. Around the perimeter of the room, a thousand well-armed men stood at attention.

"They don't move a muscle. It's like an industrial Buckingham Palace," Pandora said loudly. "Can we look around?"

"That's what we're here for."

She weaved her way in between forging stations to approach the clay army. "They're all painted! They almost look alive. How come the ones I've always seen in pictures aren't painted?"

"It was twenty-two hundred years between when they were painted and anyone took pictures. Besides, they were buried all that time. When they were exposed to oxygen for the first time, it all flaked off."

Obelix began growling at one of the statues. "Ssh, Obelix. It's okay. They're not real." She turned back toward the Doctor. "Why were they buried?"

"Once again, nobody knows. They were supposed to go into the emperor's tomb."

"Which also got buried."

"Exactly. Now it's got your interest, eh?"

Pandora continued on through rank and file of spearman, swordsman and archer, all armed with real weapons. "There's a chariot!" she said.

The Doctor nodded. "Should be at least six of them, if memory serves. That's how many survived to modern times."

"Maybe there's a bunch that haven't been made yet. Did you think of that, Spaceman?"

"Nice try. We're in the final days of the Emperor's life. There was no point in building more once he died."

"Thought I had you there," she said. "Still, there's a lot of people working on all this with the emperor on his death bed."

"You know he's going to die, and I know he's going to die, but to everyone else here, he's going to achieve immortality. Come on. Let's go find the artist."

The Doctor turned left and went out to the ring of artists around the statues. "Excuse me," he said to the first one he came across. "Where is the artist?"

The man set down his paintbrush and turned toward him. "The artist?"

"Yes. The artist. The architect. The one who conceived and designed all this."

"You mean Master Wang?"

"Yes, of course I do. Who else would I be talking about?" While the man turned to look for Master Wang, the Doctor turned to Pandora and shrugged.

"There he is, speaking to Master Li."

"Master Li is here?"

"Yes. Of course. He and Master Xu are supervising everything leading up to the emperor's apotheosis."

"Ah. That makes sense then. Carry on." The man returned to the breast plate he was painting, and the Doctor, Pandora and Obelix went through the rows of artists toward Masters Wang and Li.

"What's an apotheosis?" Pandora asked.

"It means the emperor is going to become a god."

A chill ran down Pandora's spine. Until she met the Doctor, that would have just sounded like superstitious nonsense. Now she wasn't so sure. "Can he do that?"

The Doctor walked silently for a long while. "I don't know," he finally said. "Master Wang!" he said as he approached. He grabbed the man's hand and started shaking it vigorously. "I'm a huge fan of your work, if I could just tear you away from Master Li for a few moments, I'd love to ask you some questions." Master Wang look down at his hand in confusion, then over at Master Li.

Master Li straightened to his impressive full height. "And just who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm sorry, star-struck as I was, I forgot to mention." He let go of the man's hand finally, and dug his psychic paper out of his pocket. "I am the Doctor, and this, gentlemen, is Pandora!" he said with a flourish.

The men seemed to notice her for the first time. Their eyes widened, and Master Li snatched the paper from the Doctor's hand, examining it carefully. "It's genuine!" he said, holding it out toward the Doctor, but staring at Pandora.

She grimaced uncomfortably and held her box against her chest as they stared at her. Li Si walked around to look at her from behind. She could feel his breath on her neck as he examined her roots. He reached out to touch the silvery streak at her temple. Finally it was too much for her and she stepped backward, swatting at his hand. "Hands off, guv!"

His eyes widened even further at the unaccustomed disrespect, but he bowed and walked backward to rejoin Master Wang. "A thousand pardons, mistress. I couldn't believe…"

"Yes, well, forgive and forget," the Doctor said. "Perhaps there's something else you could be doing just now?"

Master Li bowed again. "I will inform the emperor of your arrival." He turned and hurried away.

"Now that we're alone, Master Wang, I'd like to know a bit more about how you came up with the idea for these figures," the Doctor said, putting an arm around him and leading him off toward a group of sculptors.

Pandora was about to follow, but Obelix was growling again. He was staring at one of the terracotta warriors. It was standing in its place at the end of one of the rows, but unlike all the others, it had its head turned to look to the side. Directly at her.

She walked slowly toward the statue. She hadn't noticed it before, but she had been looking at the whole group of them, and it seemed odd that this one hadn't stood out to her. Close up, she could see that not only was this the only one of the thousands nearby that was looking to the side, but the paint around its neck had flaked and broken off. The terracotta clay underneath was exposed, and there were chips of peach-colored paint on its shoulder. She leaned forward and blew. The bits of paint flew off the statue and settled to the ground behind it.

"Pandora," the Doctor called over the sounds of the workers.

She turned and headed back to meet him, summoning Obelix along the way.

"I want to come back and look at these again tonight. I couldn't properly scan that mixture with my sonic. They apparently had a problem with theft at some point, where workers were making off with statues, so now the army is guarded day and night. We'll need to get something from the Tardis."

Pandora was about to mention the one weird statue, but when she looked back at the army, she couldn't find it. They all seemed to be looking forward.

* * *

Pandora was sitting on her box, playing fetch with Obelix, when the Doctor returned. "A little additive for the guards' tea," he explained, swishing the contents of a stoppered flask.

"What's in it?" Pandora asked.

"Well, you know how tryptophan, like in turkey or warm milk makes you sleepy?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"Well, it's nothing like that. But it does act on your brain, signaling it to sleep. Only this doesn't work gently and gradually," he said. "It will work fast, but not for long. A few minutes, tops." He put the flask in one of his pants pockets, bigger on the inside. Pandora stood, picked up her box, and matched his pace as he walked toward the build site.

"That's great, but even if you manage to get it into their tea, there are a thousand guards in there. If the first hundred start nodding off, they'll start to suspect the tea, won't they?"

The Doctor just winked at her, an action she could barely make out in the overcast night.

"The beauty is, they've got some sort of ceremony in the Tomb this evening. It will be just us, the ladies with the tea, and the sleeping guards."

"What are they doing?"

"No idea. Master Wang Changdong — write that name down for history, by the way — lost me at the point he said he and all the others would be there and not at the build site. He invited me, and I promised we'd come, but you know. Things happen."

"Aha. And why are you so curious about the composition of clay that you'd want to miss a mysterious ceremony in a tomb no one has seen in two thousand years?"

"Oh, the tomb will still be there tomorrow," he said.

Pandora regarded him skeptically, waiting for more.

The Doctor sighed. "Because I think it's connected. That particular mixture, never duplicated, might answer all the questions: Why did they bury the Warriors? Why didn't they go into the tomb like was obviously intended? Why did the tomb itself get buried? Did the emperor even get put to rest inside it? And most curious of all is the question nobody ever seems to ask."

"What is that?"

"Why did a man, so obsessed with his own immortality, even bother building a tomb?"

Pandora stopped, a stunned look on her face. "Oh yeah! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because to you, this is all mumbo jumbo. It'll never work, and the emperor is going to die. Of course he'll need a tomb. And the more important the person, the bigger the tomb should be, right? But _he_ didn't think so. So why did he build it? He barely scraped together a country! Why risk bankrupting it immediately? Especially if he never intends to use it."

Pandora hurried to catch up. "And you think the composition of some clay is going to answer all that?"

"Master Wang is adding to each of the sculptures a bit of rock that he's grinding up. He calls it his 'heavenly stone'. He claims it fell from the sky. The only problem is it's impossible."

"Why is that impossible?" Pandora asked.

"Ah, here's the tea lady," the Doctor said.

Pandora looked up to see a woman coming toward them out of the darkness. She had a wooden yoke over her shoulders, and suspended from each side was an enormous tin jug. She also balanced a tray on her head that was heavily loaded with tea cups. She stopped as the Doctor and Pandora approached. She set the jugs down and bowed deeply toward them, keeping the tray of cups carefully balanced. "Are you going to the ceremony?" she asked.

"Yes. We were just on our way there. Which direction is it again?"

She turned slowly to point behind her. In the distance, there were a trail of torches, leading up the hill. "In the emperor's monument, just up there," she said.

While her back was turned, the Doctor pulled out the flask, unstoppered it, poured half its content into each of the jugs, resealed it, and got it back in his pocket. "Thank you, dear lady. I would be honored if I could return the favor and help you with your burden before we go. Could we help you deliver the tea?"

She smiled and bowed again. "No, Master Doctor, it would shame me to give my burden to you." She stood back up, lifting the jugs off the ground.

"Just Doctor, if you please. And the shame would be mine if I allowed my shoulders to rest while yours strained as they do."

"But it is my job and my duty to carry the tea to the guards, that they might be ever watchful over the emperor's warriors."

"Ah, and so you shall carry the tea, while I carry your burden." He got his shoulders under the yoke and lifted it off her smaller frame before she could argue. Then he took a ladle from one of the jugs and handed it to the woman. "Your tea, madam," he said.

She blushed and accepted it from him, bowing again without disturbing the cups. She turned and lead the way along the path to the work site. She stopped for the guards at the door, deftly removing two cups from the stacks above her head. She held the cups in her splayed fingers, and poured tea from the ladle into each, then gave them to the men, who accepted them wordlessly. They opened the doors and the three of them entered, Obelix following after Pandora.

There were fewer guards there than had been during the day, but they still numbered in the hundreds. The tea lady repeated the process for each of the guards, moving efficiently from man to man. In all, the process took well over an hour. Pandora was getting nervous, first that the Doctor's additive would start to take effect any moment, then later, that it wasn't going to work at all.

"Doctor," she whispered meaningfully.

"Have faith," he whispered back.

They finished up with the last few guards, and the first several still showed no signs of sleep. Quite the opposite, in fact, they seemed more alert now than when they had entered.

"And this will keep them up all night?" the Doctor asked.

The tea lady laughed. "No, Master Doctor, just a few hours. I will bring them more tea when the candle burns down."

"Just Doctor," he reminded her. "Then you need something to keep _you_ up as well." He reached for three more cups and poured tea for himself, the tea lady and for Pandora. He handed them around and raised his in the air. "To an important job, serving the emperor."

They could hear loud drums and chanting coming from outside. The ceremony at the Tomb had started. They all lifted their cups to their lips.

The Doctor put a hand over Pandora's cup, keeping her from drinking, just as the tea lady had hers. She looked at him oddly, then the Doctor pulled out his sonic. He waited a few moments and activated it. All the guards, and the tea lady, dropped to the ground.

"Now to see to that recipe." He shrugged off the yoke and ran toward one of the corners of the massive room.

Pandora ran after him. "You want to tell me now, why the meteor is impossible?"

He looked over his shoulder with an amused smile. "Because this one is made of stone. The ones that survive intact are made of metal. The stone ones become a fine spray of dust if they survive long enough to slam into the Earth."

"And this one?"

"Well look at it," the Doctor said, coming to a halt. In front of him was a rock about the size of her head that looked like white marble. There were a number of huge bronze hammers laying next to it, and white powder filled several bowls nearby.

"So, not dust then."

"No." The Doctor scanned it with his sonic. "It did come from space though… It's just that — No!" He spun around, a look of horror on his face. He was looking past her, so Pandora turned as well.

The Terracotta warriors had turned in place and were all facing them now. Pandora jumped, and Obelix growled.

"The rock survived because it wasn't a rock. It was alive! And these guards were watching the Warriors day and night until I put them to sleep. That was a stupid idea in hindsight."

"Did those statues just move?" Pandora asked.

"Yes, they did. But they can't do it again while you're looking at them. So don't look away, even for a moment. Don't even blink."

"Don't blink? How do you not blink? Maybe if I were prepared —." Her eyes were tearing up already.

A gust of wind blew through the room, and the oil lamps that were lighting it sputtered. Even worse, Pandora could no longer keep her eyes open. She blinked. When she opened her eyes again, the Terracotta Army had moved several feet closer. Spearmen were at the front with their spears lowered. Archers held crossbows trained on them. The horse-drawn chariots were frozen in mid charge.

"Around the side, move quickly, and don't take your eyes off them." The Doctor hurried her to the right and followed along.

A second breeze came through and the lamps guttered again, nearly going out entirely. When they came back, the soldiers had moved again, cutting off their exit to the right.

"Grab a hammer! We can smash a few timbers and get out the side."

"Doctor, those hammers are massive! I couldn't swing one on a good day, not to mention without looking!"

"Fine. You keep looking, I'll do the hammering."

The gas lamps blew nearly out. When they came back, Pandora and the Doctor were surrounded. Spearmen were all around them, and they stood back to back, trying to keep an eye on the entire army. "Doctor!" Pandora yelled, close to panic.

The Doctor was startled to find an officer of the Terracotta Army standing directly in front of him with its arm outstretched. In its hand it held a paper scroll. For a moment, the Doctor and the officer stood face to face, with only the sounds of drums and chanting between them.

He pushed on Pandora's back. "Squeeze between them. Now, while they're facing each other." He moved slowly backward, and the gas lamps went out again.

When they came back on this time, the officer had moved forward again, holding the scroll out in the Doctor's face. "Doctor!" Pandora screamed from behind him. The Doctor spun around to see several of the soldiers holding Pandora by the arms. Several others had spears thrusting toward her chest and throat.

"Don't. Blink," the Doctor said, then turned and cautiously pulled the scroll from the officer's hand. He unrolled the scroll and read it.

"Help us Doctor. The ancient predator has returned. You must stop it. You are our only hope," it read.

"What?" the Doctor said, looking over the top of the scroll.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a disturbance. Something was floating slowly through the air. It was too small to see, but it bent the light around it so that it looked like everything behind it was stretched toward a central point. It moved through the room, randomly at first, then, as if with a purpose, it moved straight toward the closest terracotta soldier. The moment the disturbance overlapped the soldier, it was stretched toward it and got sucked into the tiny dot. The dot moved onto a second, then a third soldier and repeated the process.

At that moment, the drumming and chanting stopped. The disturbance flashed white and disappeared.

"Not possible," the Doctor said, staring at the spot where the disturbance had just been.

The gas lamps flickered again and went out. When the lights came up again, the entire army had returned to its original position.


	2. Where Angels Fear to Tread

"Okay, the statues are all alive, and when you aren't looking, they can move. I can almost wrap my mind around that. In your world, that just about makes sense. But, what the hell was _that thing_?

"A legend. A myth," the Doctor said breathily.

"No, not good enough. It was right there. I saw it. Or well, kinda saw it."

"But it's only theoretical. There's never been one. Time Lord scientists have predicted it and scanned the timelines for one, from one end of the universe to the other, start to end. They don't exist."

"You seem to be having a lot of difficulty with this Doctor, so let me help you. _It does exist!_ Now, what is it?"

The Doctor sighed. "You're right. Of course." He was quiet for a few moments more, then said, "You know what a black hole is, right?"

"Sure," Pandora said carefully. When the Doctor spoke like this it was often a trick question. "It's a star, collapsed to a single point, so massive that space itself warps around it and nothing, not even light can escape."

"Very nicely put. But imagine that the same could happen to time. A point in time of such immense significance, so many fixed points collected, that over time its 'weight' begins to pull in all events around it." He watched her face to see if she was following. "Imagine the biggest event that you can, a single moment that altered human history forever. The discovery of America… The Theory of Relativity… The invention of the printing press… Microwave popcorn. Those are all tiny compared to what would cause this. The theory goes, that moments like when Omega first leashed the Eye of Harmony, or when Rassilon pierced the dimensional barriers might cause one. The defeat of the Elder Races by the Fledgling Empires, allowing so many cultures to form and flourish, that sort of thing. Something with universal impact. But they've never been found."

"Until now."

"Yes," the Doctor said, returning to his thoughts. "Until now."

"So, why here, and why now, and why is the Terracotta Army afraid of it?"

The Doctor sighed again. "Weeping Angels. That's what they're called," he said, pointing off toward the clay army. "Also called 'Lonely Assassins'. They are currently in a quantum locked state. They cannot move while being watched, which makes for a very solitary existence. I've never seen a grouping so large. They're only here because Man had a hand in making so many. Master Wang placed the image of an Angel into each of them when he mixed in the 'heavenly essence' of that meteorite. And the only reason they are still here is because they've posted so many guards that they are always being watched. Speaking of which, we should go before they wake up."

They eased around the inside edge of the building, keeping an eye on the Angels at all times. "I don't think they'll attack. They want my help. But I would never knowingly trust them." He held the door open for Pandora and Obelix and closed it tight behind them. The guards outside were just starting to stir. He put a finger to his lips, and moved carefully past them, then lead Pandora off with no obvious destination in mind.

"You never answered my question," Pandora said once they were out of earshot. "Why is it here, now? And why's it after the Angels?"

"Based on the Angels' note, the fact that they've faced one before, and based off of tonight's observations, it looks like they somehow gain a sort of sentience, and seek out other massive space-time events to feed off of. The Angels feed off of time energies. If they touch you, they send you back in time and consume the paradox, all your un-lived tomorrows. They are themselves space-time events. The Tardis —" The Doctor started running. "Oh, no! The Tardis!"

He pulled his phone from his pocket as he ran and began furiously pressing buttons. At the outskirts of town he turned and headed up the nearest hill. Pandora fell behind, huffing and puffing while the Doctor continued up the hill at top speed. She was only two thirds of the way up when she saw him reach the top and hold his phone high in the air. She heard the sound of the Tardis engines, and found the energy reserves to run the rest of the way. She got there just in time to see the Tardis fade away entirely.

"You sent it away? What did you do that for?"

"Think about it! The Weft is after the Angels because it's consuming space-time events, and the Tardis will call to it like a beacon. I'd be lost without my Tardis."

"'The Weft'?" Pandora asked.

"Yes. That's what the Time Lords called it. You've heard of time warps, I presume? This is the Weft. Just like pulling on a thread unravels a piece of fabric, the Weft unravels the fabric of time with its movements."

Pandora just watched him with narrowed eyes.

"It's a silly name, let's just move past it."

"Okay, but where did you send the Tardis? Where is safe from this Weft?" Pandora asked.

"I parked her, a fracture of a second in the future. She will stay there, permanently lodged just a moment from now, until I call for her. It's part of an emergency protocol."

"But we can get to it again, if we need to, right? If we need to escape?"

"I'm sorry, but the risk is too big. She will have to stay put until the Weft is dealt with. I'm not really comfortable with the Angels having access to her either."

"Well then, what about you? You've spent ages traveling back and forth through time. You've been there for a bunch of these 'fixed points'. Surely you are as big a space-time event as any Angel."

The Doctor shrugged, in a look that was clearly supposed to look demure. "Try all of them. Combined."

"Oh, great. And now we're stranded with something that eats space-time events, and I'm walking around with an All-You-Can-Eat buffet!"

He chuckled. "Don't worry, Pandora. We'll fix this."

"Alright, so what's your plan. How do we defeat a 'significant moment in time'? Especially one that may have so much of history dependent upon it?"

"That's a very good question, Pandora. And for our solution, I think we should go consult with the experts." He pointed toward the emperor's tomb, where the workers were pouring out and returning to their shelters, oblivious to the army of murderous aliens in their midst. At the head of this mass exodus, a small line of torches were heading instead to the palace. "The timing of their chanting was not a coincidence."

* * *

The Doctor and Pandora waited around the side of one of the shelters until the emperor's procession passed, then joined the end of the line. They entered the palace through the front doors and passed through an antechamber, heavy with incense burning in hanging censers. Guards at the other end opened large double doors, and they entered the throne room.

Behind the lingering incense, the throne room smelled of newly cut wood and fresh paint. Despite the obviously recent and rushed construction, the details were ornate and beautiful. Paintings of cloud dragons with pearls in their mouths, and castles perched on craggy mountains adorned the walls. Paper lanterns and silk banners hung from the ceiling, and examples of the emperor's wisdom, written in block calligraphy, hung as banners from pillars on either side of the throne.

The throne itself was stained a deep red and carved with a motif of dragons perched upon piles of coins, and clutching pearls. The emperor moved serenely to his throne and turned to face his audience. He was a large man with a fu-manchu mustache that hung to his chest. He was nearly bald, and wore a hat with a rectangular brim, forward and back. A curtain of thin tassels on the ends of the brim hung down to just above eye level, and swayed as he moved his head. His silken robe was decorated in the same dragon motif as the throne and walls of the room. It had deep sleeves, and he stood with his arms folded inside them.

He was followed onto the raised platform where his throne sat, by Li Si and Wang Changdong as well as three men the Doctor and Pandora hadn't seen before. An ancient man with a long white beard came first, leaning on a cane. Next was a man twice as large as the emperor, dressed in fine robes. He was bald and wore heavy golden earrings. Last was a younger man in neat robes, carrying a slate and a stylus. They filed to either side of the throne, Li Si closest on the emperor's right, and the mountain of a man on his left. The guards and archers, as well as other dignitaries formed into even rows and columns facing them. The Doctor and Pandora stood in the center at the back of the room. Pandora clutched her box to her chest.

The Doctor had his sonic out and concealed under his other hand. He pointed it at the emperor and briefly activated it. Several people turned and looked for the source of the sound, but the Doctor acted as if he'd heard nothing. He leaned toward Pandora and whispered, "All the dragons reminded me. The story goes that the emperor's grandfather descended from the heavens, riding the back of a great golden dragon. Ancient astronaut theorists have had a field day with that, so I had to see for myself. His grandson at least is plain old human."

Once the emperor's advisors all took their place on the platform, the emperor sat. Li Si looked over the audience, judging everyone, then noticed the Doctor and Pandora. "Heavenly emperor," he announced in a booming stage voice, "You no doubt notice that we have new arrivals. Allow me to introduce, Mistress Pandora, and her chief advisor, the Doctor." He bowed and flourished as he said their names.

The barest hint of a smile crossed the emperor's worn face. "Approach," he said.

The Doctor bowed, and Pandora followed suit. He then waited expectantly, and she took that as her cue to go first. She had no idea how she was supposed to present herself. In fact, she had no idea _who_ she was supposed to be. She did remember seeing a movie on telly many years ago, and there were geishas dressed a lot like she was now. She couldn't even remember whether geishas were Chinese or Japanese, but she decided it was the closest cultural reference she had. She remembered how they walked with poise, and with rapid but tiny steps. She folded her arms into the sleeves of her robe, holding her box just below, and did her best to emulate them.

She walked down the aisle, smiling and bowing her head toward everyone as she passed, wishing she had a fan to hold in front of her face.

"No, no," the Doctor whispered. "Don't do that."

She blushed terribly under her thick white makeup, but straightened up, adopting a more aloof attitude. She stopped in front of the raised platform, and bowed as low as she could. The Doctor stayed a pace behind her and just to the right. He bowed just a hair lower.

"Rise, mistress," the emperor said. "You have been absent from our land for so long. What brings you here now?"

"Many things, oh Emperor of all China," she said in a large voice, trying to sound both mysterious and important. She gestured with her arms in wide, sweeping motions. "Your heavenly army. Your impressive" - she stopped herself just before calling it a tomb - "monument. Your apothecary."

"Apotheosis," the Doctor quickly whispered.

"A-pah-the-o-sus," Pandora said grandly.

"Ah," the emperor said with a smile. He melted back into his throne. "Then the heavens prepare for my coming." He coughed into his fist, then beckoned to the left. The old man in white pulled a silver case from a bag at his hip, and came to the emperor's side. He removed a small pill from the case. The emperor opened his mouth, and the man placed the pill on his tongue. The emperor closed his eyes and swallowed, leaning his head back.

It was silent for a long time. Pandora was half-way sure the emperor had fallen asleep and they'd be waiting there silently all night. Finally he opened his eyes. "I must rest, for tomorrow's exertions. But first, Mistress Pandora, you knew my grandfather while he was yet young. Tell me a story of him as you remember him."

Pandora looked nervously back at the Doctor, but he acted as if he didn't notice. She turned back to the emperor. She knew nothing of his grandfather, except what the Doctor had just said. What could she make up that sounded plausible?

"How about… the day he arrived? He was so majestic and regal, standing on the back of… West Wind… the dragon! Yes! And… and the people, they looked up to him." She thought of something suddenly, and hit her stride. "The dragon would have stolen all the attention had he been lesser of a man, but that day, they remembered… your grandfather! Tell me, do you still have the robes he wore that day?" She was very proud of herself, turning it into a question so she wouldn't have to make up any more.

The emperor smiled weakly and closed his eyes again. "Sometimes I wore it in my younger days to get a sense of his greatness."

"Mistress, if I may address the emperor," the Doctor said, bowing low.

Pandora gave the barest of nods in response.

The Doctor stepped forward and bowed to the emperor. "Your majesty, my mistress has tasked me with ensuring your transition. To this end, I should consult with your advisors and see their plans. Masters Li and Wang we know. Who are these others?"

The bald mountain of a man stepped forward. "I am Zhao Gao, Chief Eunuch to the emperor. Master Xu Fu," he said gesturing to the stooped old man next to him, "is the Emperor's favored sorcerer. Gan De is the emperor's personal astrologer," he said, gesturing to the man with the slate on the far side of the platform, "The emperor's eldest son has gone on to Xianyang to see to affairs of state. Each of us play our part in the emperor's ascension. We have seen to every detail."

"And yet," the emperor interrupted, "Pandora's advisor may have knowledge of some formality or custom that you do not. You will give him access to every detail this very evening, and he will attend tomorrow's ceremony, for the following evening, I will ascend."

"It will be so, your majesty," Zhao Gao said with a deep bow.

"Now, I will retire for the night. Master Zhao, attend me."

Zhao Gao offered the emperor his hand and helped him up from his throne. The two walked out through a doorway in the back of the throne room.

Li Si stepped forward. "How would you like to proceed, Master Doctor?"

The Doctor sighed, but let that pass. "Return to your quarters and workshops. I will come to you each when I am ready. Master Li, fetch us a messenger so that I can find everyone."

"It will be so," he said with a slight bow. Then he turned to those assembled. "You heard him! Go, now!" He clapped his hands and everyone left the throne room, aside from guards at the front and rear exits.

The Doctor found a spot in the middle of the room and knelt, closing his eyes in apparent meditation. Pandora knelt down next to him and closed her eyes as well. She tried not to move her lips as she whispered, "Just who exactly do they think I am?"

"There was a story of a woman in ancient times. She was known by her yellow hair, and they said she was telepathic. She spoke to dragons with her mind. She shared a special bond with one in particular, and he gave her immortality. She spoke to the golden dragon that brought the emperor's grandfather to China, and was therefore present to greet him."

"And her name was Pandora?" she asked, incredulous.

"No, of course not. Remember that the Tardis is translating for us. She's taking just a bit of license with your name. But with the yellow hair, it isn't much of a stretch."

"The same Tardis that's no longer here?"

"Don't think too hard about it. Now, I think we should go see what the advisors are cooking up. I don't think it's likely that anyone is purposely summoning that Weft, but let's go see what they _are_ doing. We know Wang Changdong's part in this. He collected a meteor and built an army of aliens from it. So, first the astrologer, then the sorcerer, I think. Here comes our guide now."

He must have heard the approach of the boy's feet, because when Pandora opened her eyes to see him, the Doctor still had his closed. The boy was perhaps ten or twelve, wearing an oversized robe and looking as if he'd just been woken. He approached, and bowed perfunctorily, but said nothing.

"Good evening, young man, please take us to Master Gan's chambers," the Doctor said, standing up. The boy bowed again and turned, heading toward the exit at the back of the room.

"But Doctor," Pandora whispered harshly, pulling on the tail of his hoodie as she stood up, "what should I do while you're gathering information?"

"Just do what I do when someone else has the situation in hand. Smile benevolently."

"I've never seen you do that!"

"Well, one day, someone else will have it all sorted. Then you'll see."

They followed the boy through the doorway and down a short passage. It opened up into a garden and pond area, open to the sky, with statuary placed amid the fragrant flowers. On either side of the square garden were sliding panels of bamboo and paper spaced out along the walls.

The page took them to the second panel on the left side and knocked. "Enter," said a voice on the other side. The boy slid the panel to the side, and the Doctor walked up to the doorway. He slipped out of his running shoes by stepping on their heels, then entered the chamber. Pandora followed suit, and the boy slid the panel back into place, remaining outside.

* * *

Once their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could see Master Gan's chamber had a simple sleeping mat on one side, with a bit of unlit candle next to a stick of smoldering punk. The other side was a mess of papers and observational instruments. Somewhere under the pile of papers was a writing desk, and pinned to one wall was a map of the night sky with recent additions and copious notes. There was a panel in the ceiling that could be raised by use of a bamboo pole, though it was currently shut.

"If you require illumination, I will light the candle, but my work requires darkness, and I would prefer to keep my eyes adjusted."

"No, don't bother yourself on our behalf. I only have a few questions, and no amount of light will provide the illumination I seek. Tell me, what part do you play in the apotheosis?"

"I am the emperor's astrologer. It is my duty to calculate the stars positions at the time of his birth, and to find the most fortuitous alignment for his ascension. That's how we determined the date. I also aided in the equations used to place, orient and build the pyramid, for optimum benefit to the emperor." He bowed when mentioning the emperor.

"I see," the Doctor said. "And how did you determine what would be fortuitous and beneficial?"

"I have built upon the wisdom of our ancestors. They had determined that the location of the five planets, at the time of your birth can greatly influence the course of your life and even predict aspects of your personality. I have humbly added to the catalog of known stars, going beyond the constellations I was taught. My work was accelerated when Master Xu came to favor with the emperor. He denounced the other sorcerers as charlatans, and made great predictions. He brought me a mystical pair of devices he called a 'lens'. We affixed them to a bamboo tube of a specified length, and suddenly I could see stars where previously there was only darkness. We discovered that there is another planet beyond the five! With observation, I was able to calculate it's location at the emperor's birth and further refine my predictions. A sixth planet implied a sixth element, as well, and I was able to take that into account. He also suggested a new constellation, invisible except through the lens, whose alignment may be of importance. After that it's all maths."

"Very interesting. This new constellation, may I see it?"

"Not tonight, Doctor, the heavens have drawn a blanket of clouds to obscure their movements. But I did draw what I saw at the time." He rushed to the desk and started leafing through papers, moving one stack to the top of another pile until he found the one he wanted. He handed it to the Doctor.

The Doctor gasped, then held the paper toward the dim light of the glowing punk. "Kasterborous," he said breathily.

"Kasterborous!" Master Gan repeated, snatching the paper from the Doctor's numb hands and pulling a pen from an inkwell to jot it down.

"And the meteor that Master Wang is using…?" the Doctor asked, his eyes still far away.

"Yes! I first observed it coming from that section of sky!"

"Which you took as fortuitous."

"Of course! We had determined previously that this sign was significant for the emperor, and on the day of his ascension it will be directly overhead at midnight. When the meteor struck nearby, it could be nothing else but a fortuitous sign. Until, of course, some peasant defaced it."

"Defaced it?"

Master Gan waved it off. "It's unimportant. An act of vandalism. But to the superstitious and uneducated, it looked like a bad omen. Someone had carved on it a threat against the emperor."

The Doctor grabbed Master Gan by both arms and shook him. "What did it say? What, exactly, did it say?"

"The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided," Master Gan said, confused. "But it's not important. Just peasants being disrespectful…"

"Because you thought that meant Emperor Qin Shi Huang."

Master Gan stood dumbfounded, looking back and forth between the Doctor and Pandora. Pandora smiled back benevolently.

"Thank you, Master Gan, that will be all," the Doctor said. He pulled the panel back to the side and stepped outside, sliding into his shoes. "Take me to Master Xu, now."

Pandora left the door open and stepped into her sandals, then hurried to catch up. She slowed the Doctor down by dragging on his hood. "What's wrong with Kasterborous?" she whispered.

"Nothing's wrong with it, except he shouldn't know it's there. It's also where I'm from, but more importantly, given what's going on, it's where the Eye of Harmony resides."

"And the first emperor, if that isn't our guy, who is it?"

"Rassilon. Though he preferred the term 'President'."

They'd arrived in front of another panel, which the boy knocked on again. "Enter freely, and leave some of the peace you bring," called a shaky voice. The boy slid open the panel and stepped aside.

* * *

They repeated the process of removing their footwear and entered. Master Xu's room was larger than Master Gan's, and filled with soporific smoke. Along the walls were cabinets and tables, neatly displaying various mystical items. In the center of the room was a folding screen. Oil lamps hung from the ceiling, casting dull red light around the room. Something bubbled slowly in a bronze pot in the corner.

As soon as the boy closed the panel behind them, the Doctor began poking his nose into every container in this part of the room.

A voice behind him laughed. "There's nothing in there that I can recommend to the uninitiated." The Doctor turned to see the old man in the white robes, and long white beard and mustache, collapsing the screen to the side of the room. "You have some questions for me, eh Doctor?"

"You're damned right I do." The Doctor pulled out his sonic and scanned the old man. Then his angry expression faded. "You're human! But, how can you be?"

"Of course I am. What else would I be?" He shuffled to the other side of the room and placed a pill in some water, swished it around, and drank it.

"Let's leave the show for the rubes outside, shall we?" the Doctor said, taking the old man's cane from his gnarled grip.

"Doctor!" Pandora said. She rushed forward as if to catch the old man, but the Doctor stopped her.

"That boiling pot, Pandora, does the smell remind you of anything?"

It was hard to smell anything other than the incense that filled the room. She leaned in closer, then pulled a face at the acrid odor. "Yeah, a beauty salon."

"Exactly. And what would our sorcerer need with hair bleach? Except the way Master Li inspected your roots Pandora, Master Xu probably has to apply it every day to keep his hair and beard white. Isn't that right, oh Exposer of Charlatans?"

The wrinkled face of Master Xu smoothed as he relaxed it. He stood to his full height, and said in a strong but quiet voice, a full octave lower than previous, "People expect a man of wisdom to be as old as the mountains themselves. What does it matter that I play along, as long as the magic works?"

"And just how does the magic work?" the Doctor asked as he turned slowly, scanning the rest of the room.

"Hard work. I've spent my life studying ancient texts and perfecting alchemical formulae. I've gathered ingredients for medicines and spells from the far corners of China and beyond."

"Yes, it's that 'beyond' bit that I'm so curious about. How did you learn to grind a lens?"

The sorcerer sighed, frustrated. "I found the ruins of an ancient civilization — do not ask, I will not tell you where — and they had amazing advancements. Their walls were made from metal harder than bronze; glass so pure it was invisible. There was a magic stone that put images in my head, and I learned about the stars, and beings that live in the heavens, and all of the knowledge they hoard for themselves."

The Doctor leaned toward Pandora, "Translation: crashed ship, psychic interface, massive database. That one's starting to get truly old."

"Any technology significantly advanced is indistinguishable from magic," Pandora said back.

"What? No, that's nonsense. There's real magic out there too, and you know it when you see it." He addressed Master Xu again. "So, tell me. What's the point of all this chanting? You're summoning this beastie from Kasterborous that's feeding off the statues. I get that bit, but why?"

"You've seen the Weft feeding?" Master Xu said excitedly. "Then we are truly close! Tomorrow we should have enough energy to complete the transformation!"

"And that teaching stone even told you the name of the creature. Master Xu, listen. You can't possibly know how dangerous that creature is. As it feeds, it's getting stronger. If it consumes that army outside, it will be unstoppable. It will suck in the Earth and keep going. If you are somehow siphoning off its energy, it's like attaching a lawn sprinkler to a firehose! You can't possibly contain it."

"But I can!" The sorcerer turned and pulled a silk sheet away from a pedestal. On top of the pedestal was a basketball-sized orb, glowing with swirling light.

The Doctor took a step back and pulled Pandora with him. "Be very careful with that Master Wu. If it should fall, the temporal energies that get released would wipe out half the continent. Let me take it with me and dispose of it properly."

"You'll do no such thing!" Master Xu said. He placed a hand on the orb, causing the Doctor to wince. "The spell will work. Tomorrow night, I will transfer the remaining energy to the orb, and the night after that, when the alignment is correct, I will give all that time to the emperor! He will live forever! And he will reward me greatly!"

"No. It's too dangerous. If any one of a thousand things goes wrong, the energy will be unleashed and China will be destroyed!"

"You will not stop me, Doctor. If you try, I will expose your 'Mistress'. What do you suppose the emperor will do to her when I prove that she is not really Pandora?"

The Doctor's face was a mask of conflicting emotions. He was silent for most of a minute, eyes darting around the room, then he focused on the glowing orb. "Alright. You win. If I promise not to stop you, will you let me have access to your ingredients so that I can make it as safe as possible?"

Master Wu smiled that dreamy smile of his, wrinkling up his face and bowing his back. "That will be acceptable."

* * *

They made up a chamber for Pandora to sleep in, while the Doctor worked through the night. It was almost midday when she awoke. Someone had placed a tray of tea outside her door, but it was cold and over-steeped by the time she poured it. "I don't suppose they have a Starbucks nearby," she said to herself, and drank her tea.

She was told that the Doctor was in the monument, so she fixed her hair, picked up her box, and went to meet him there. There was a long stone staircase that led to the top of the pyramid, but there was also an opening a third of the way up. She entered this stone corridor, and could see light pouring in from the other end. Before she reached the opening, she heard the familiar sound of the Doctor's sonic activating, and she quickened her steps.

"Good morning, Doctor," she said when she entered the ceremonial chamber. The Doctor made a show of looking at his watch, even though Pandora had never known him to not know the exact time. "Yeah, yeah. There was no one to wake me," she said.

She looked around the chamber, and had to stop walking for fear of missing a step. The ceiling was painted like a realistic depiction of the night time sky. The stars seemed to glow and even twinkle. The floor was a map of China, with the six major rivers carving glittering paths out to an ocean that reflected the stars above. In the place where the pyramid would have sat on the map was an altar carved with dragons. Four braziers on each side of the room blazed with coals, and the sides of the room carved and painted to look like temples, but could serve as bench seating during the ceremonies.

The Doctor was using his sonic to install something on either side of the staircase that Pandora was descending. Having gotten a good look around, she continued on to be with him. She watched for a bit, but it was obvious he didn't need any help, so she set her box down on the lowest step and looked around.

The map was rather detailed, with mountains and desert areas painted as such, cities were probably recognizable, if she knew her geography any better. Some were bigger than others, and there were roads painted between them. There was the Great Wall, in place at the North and the West. She got down on her hands and knees to examine one of the rivers. It was amazingly shiny. She reached out to touch it, but then drew her hand back when she remembered what it was. "It really is mercury."

"Give the lady a cigar," the Doctor said around the sonic he was holding in his mouth.

"I've never seen so much in my life! Where'd they get it all?"

He took the sonic out of his mouth, and she could hear the buzz. "The mountains in this area are actually full of mercury mines. It's part of the reason they chose the location. Mercury is believed by many to be a sort of spiritual lubricant. It's supposed to help you move from one state to another. Perhaps there's some truth to that… It certainly aids in exiting this world."

"It's poisonous, right?"

"That's two cigars I owe you. Remember that pill that Master Xu gave the emperor last night? Mercury. History says that's what kills him. I guess we'll see for ourselves if something else doesn't do it first." He finished what he was doing and stood back to verify his work. "Master Wang was asking about you, by the way. He asked if you would stop by before the ceremony tonight."

"Sure. Okay. I mean, as long as it's safe. The statues won't attack during daylight, will they?"

"Daylight has nothing to do with it. But there are a lot of workers around during the day. As long as just one person is looking in their direction, they can't move. You're safe."

Two men appeared in the doorway pushing wooden hand-trucks. Each truck contained a statue covered in a sheet. One of the workers set up a long wooden plank so they could get the hand-trucks down the stairs. Pandora pulled her box out of the way and stepped aside for them to come down.

"Set them up here at the bottom of the stairs. Make sure they're facing each other before you pull the sheets off," the Doctor said.

As soon as the men reached the bottom of the stairs, Pandora started heading up.

* * *

She got nearly all the way to the workshop before she remembered she was supposed to be in character. She stopped swinging her arms and took tiny steps, holding her box at chest height in front of her. The guards parted for her and opened the door. She nodded slightly toward them and shuffled into the heat and din of the room. She made her way around the perimeter of the building. The statues creeped her out now, so she gave them a wide berth, though she never looked away.

When she found the artist, he was working with two others. They had a bronze weight suspended from one end of a lever, and the three of them were pulling down on the other end and letting go again. The weight came down hard on the meteorite, and after several such blows, a chunk broke off. They removed the larger piece and the artist left the other two to continue pounding it into powder.

He approached Pandora, wiping the sweat from his brow on a cloth he had tied around his waist. "Thank you for coming, mistress," he said, bowing to her. "It's about your box."

Pandora grew suddenly nervous, clutching her box tighter. "What about it?" she said warily.

"It's those scenes carved on the sides. I recognized some of them from a childhood story, I think, though I can't remember which one. If you don't mind, I would like to take a charcoal rubbing of them, so I can research it later."

"I don't know…" Pandora said, feeling the panic rise insider her. She felt that way any time someone showed any interest in her box. As if they were going to try to take it from her, and all she knew is she had to guard it with her life.

"Or, maybe, you could do the rubbing?" he suggested. "If that would be better?"

She still felt uncomfortable, but she couldn't justify it. Surely it would be alright if he didn't actually get his hands on it… "Okay. Yeah, I'll do it."

He smiled broadly. "Great. Hold on, just a second." He ran off and returned with a prism of neatly packed charcoal and a long piece of paper.

Pandora set her box down on a workbench, and accepted the paper and charcoal from the artist. There were twelve scenes in all, three on the top and three on the bottom, both front and back. She laid the paper across the front top of the box and pressed the side of the charcoal across it, gently rubbing back and forth until all three scenes showed up through the paper. She moved on to the bottom front, then the top and bottom of the back, sliding the paper down a little each time so there was space between them.

"There you go," she said, handing over the paper and picking her box back up.

"Thank you Mistress. I wanted to make sure I got the details right when I painted your likeness." He smiled as he rolled up the paper and tied it with a silk ribbon.

Pandora turned away before smiling broadly. "Wow," she said to herself, "I wonder if _that_ will survive to modern times."

* * *

Pandora got there early for the ceremony, claiming a seat in the front row. Master Xu was there, standing by the altar, and the Doctor was leaning against one of the corners nearby that thing he was working on earlier. A couple other servants were carrying things about, but all was quiet in preparation for what would soon come.

Minutes later, she could hear the sounds of many footsteps, as the procession began climbing the stairs. Sculptors and smiths, tanners and painters came in first and filed to either side to stand in the back of the room. Next came archers, bows strapped to their backs. They took the top row of seats. Guards came next, taking the next row of seats, and finally dignitaries, filing in alongside Pandora. The emperor and his personal guard came in last, walking across the painted China on the floor, to arrive at the altar. He gave a short bow to Master Xu, causing Pandora to catch her breath, though everyone else had seen it the night before. He climbed up onto the altar and laid down.

Master Xu began chanting. He lit candles on both ends of the altar, and he gave the emperor something to drink. He poured a powder into a bowl and it caught fire on its own, which he then doused with a liquid. He drew symbols in the air with his hands, and he shouted gutturally. It was hard for Pandora to tell what was showmanship and what was actual magic.

Then Master Xu pulled the crystal orb from a box behind him, and Pandora knew. He placed the orb on the emperor's forehead, and it balanced there as if glued in place. He began chanting again, and everyone in the room began chanting along as if they knew the words. Pandora was surprised to find that she knew the words too, though the Tardis wasn't translating this. It was like a memory from long ago, a thing she didn't even remember knowing until everyone around her started singing it, and she felt like she wanted to, even needed to sing it too.

She joined in, and suddenly there were drums, startling her. She hadn't noticed them when she came in, but there were great big kettle drums, and men with large mallets pounding on them in rhythm to the chanting. They sang faster and faster, louder and louder, and the orb on the emperor's forehead grew brighter and brighter, and then the Weft was there.

It didn't float through the entrance and down the stairs as she had expected, one section of wall just sort of pulled toward the center, and then the Weft was through it. It meandered randomly through the air above them. It moved in lazy circles, a little higher, a little lower. The chanting continued. Pandora wasn't even paying attention to it anymore. She was just loudly singing those words she didn't understand, but knew so well.

At a couple points, the Weft approached those chanting on the stone benches, but it never quite got close, it just distorted the view of them, and moved on. Until at last, it's random movements brought it close to one of the Angels, and like something magnetic, it was drawn to it. The moment it came into contact with the statue, it sucked it in. It moved straight toward the second Angel, and the Doctor yelled, "Now!"

Two servants dropped wires into the mercury ocean on the floor below. The two artifacts that the Doctor had been working on lit up a bright white, and something not quite like electricity arced across the gap between them. The Weft came into contact with it, and the whole thing shorted out, plunging them into darkness.

The sounds of chanting and drumming stopped. Everyone was holding their breath to see what happened next. Pandora could see nothing but spots in front of her eyes from the brightness of the lights that had been there a moment ago.

"It worked!" came the Doctor's voice beside her, and she felt his hands grab hers.

"What happened? What did it do?"

"I opened a trans-dimensional barrier! A portal to an empty reality. The mercury really did make it easier! The portal was open for nearly a second, but in all my calculations I had barely a femtosecond!"

"So, an empty reality? That means there are no space-time events there for this thing to eat?" Pandora asked.

"Better than that, Pandora. The new reality was a total vacuum, no space, no time at all. The Weft would be the only source of anything — it should sort of turn inside out."

"All the space and time that was inside it would explode out of it?"

"Exactly. Not to be too full of myself, but, 'Let there be light.'"

Pandora's eyes were just adjusting to the darkness. She could see now that it wasn't actually dark, the eight braziers still blazed brightly. Then she stood up in her seat. "Where's the second statue?" she said loudly.

The Doctor looked around and spotted it. It was half-way across the room, frozen in place, heading for the altar. Pandora was looking the opposite direction, and screamed. "Doctor!" She grabbed his arm.

"I can't look away! What is it?" The rest of the group were starting to panic, running and pushing. Someone got between the Doctor and the Angel, and by the time he got out of the way, the Angel had moved several feet closer to the altar.

"The entrance! It's full of Angels!"

The Doctor risked a quick turn of the head. There they were, a group of terracotta spearmen and archers, no paint left on their bodies, blocking the tunnel that was the only way out. He looked back around and the Angel he'd been tracking was at the altar with his arms outstretched.

A fierce wind blew in through the tunnel and threatened to blow out the braziers. "This one, Pandora! Keep staring at this one!" He jumped down to the floor and started running toward it.

It was like his movement broke a spell. Everyone started running at once, with no where to go. The Doctor could see Master Xu pull the orb away from the emperor's forehead and turn away. People swarmed in front of him, and the Doctor jumped to stay above the crowd, keeping his eye on the Angel.

The emperor sat up on the altar and backed away from the statue, its face contorted in a fanged scream of rage. Someone ran in front of the Doctor and the Angel was leaning across the altar reaching for the emperor. He called out for his guards.

Well-trained men, they ran toward the statue, hacking and slashing at it with their swords. One of its outstretched arms broke off and fell to the ground. Another well aimed sword strike took a chunk out of the statue's neck.

Another gust of wind, even stronger than the first, blew out the braziers momentarily. They roared back to life, but in that instant, the statue was whole again, its arm and neck magically reassembled. It had a soldier in each of its hands, and a moment later, they were both gone.

The Doctor stood, stunned. Someone running past knocked him to the floor, and he stood up as quickly as he could, but he was too late. The terracotta soldier had reached the emperor. It was holding his head between its clawed hands. "No!" the Doctor yelled.

The emperor's eyes turned silver, and an instant later the Angel stretched toward him and disappeared into the emperor.


	3. War of the Angels

The Doctor reached the emperor's side. He pulled out his sonic and shone the light in his eyes. They had returned to normal. "Are you alright, your majesty?" he asked. Zhao Gao was there just after.

"I feel… full," the emperor said, barely above a whisper.

The Doctor looked at Master Zhao. "Get him to his feet and ready to move. Carry him if you have to." Then he turned to see what progress the other Angels had made.

Several spearmen were inside the chamber now, their spears lowered and ready for battle, their faces a silent scream of rage. The exit was still clogged with archers. There would be no way past them without touching one.

"Doctor!" Pandora called.

He quickly located her in the milling crowd. Damned if there weren't a few people paying more attention to that box of hers than the army of clay soldiers come to life. He rushed to her side and pulled her toward the empty spot around the emperor. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Jostled a bit, but I'll be okay," she said, still staring fixedly at the the line of spearmen blocking the stairs.

The Doctor looked around to Master Zhao, the emperor and Pandora, making sure he had their attention. He waved his arm at Li Si and Gan De, hoping to call them over as well. "Okay, the Angels don't know what to do right now. Otherwise they would have blown out the braziers again and swarmed us all. That means they've seen what the emperor did, and they're worried he can do it again."

"I need rest," the emperor said.

"Yes, but they don't know that. And I think that once you come into contact with one, you may feel up to it again. We need to get you up to the stairs before they make up their mind. Can you do it?"

"I will try," he said.

"I will help," Master Zhao added, tightening his grip on the emperor's arm with one strong hand.

"Good. Now, Master Li," he said to the Chancellor, who had just arrived with Master Gan. "I need you to take command of the guards. The biggest threat right now are those archers in the doorway. Angels don't usually use weapons, and it's possible the thought hasn't occurred, but they could kill the emperor from a distance and then wipe out the rest of us. We need a shield line between them and the emperor so he can get close enough to touch them. Also, it's time everyone knew. The soldiers can't move while they're being watched. So don't look away. Not for a moment. The line _must_ hold, and they _cannot_ blink."

"Yes, Doctor," he said. He ran off to take charge, booming orders. The guards, well trained as they were, regained order once they were given direction. They fell in line and took up arms.

"Okay. Let's go," the Doctor said.

The group advanced at a slow but steady march. Pandora, at the far-right of the line, looked back to see if the emperor was holding up. He was keeping his head up, and looked resolute. She then noticed that the Doctor was holding his breath. He didn't look it, but she could tell that he was nervous. She looked away, because that was just about the scariest thing she'd ever seen.

The guards made a human wall at the bottom of the stairs, directly in front of the first group of terracotta spearmen. When the emperor arrived, Master Li gave a command, and the guards in the center of the line stepped aside.

For a moment, there was absolute silence. The emperor was eye to eye with one of the terracotta warriors, neither blinking.

"Now, reach out. Touch it. Consume it," the Doctor whispered.

The emperor reached out a shaky hand, and the group was hit by a hurricane strength wind . They were forced back a step, and the coal braziers went out. The wind continued, rushing through the tunnel opening with an angry wail. Pandora's ears felt like they needed to pop with the change in pressure. She clung onto the Doctor's arm, barely able to open her eyes - unable to see anything when she did.

And instantly, the wind was gone. The hot coals spontaneously re-lit, and they could see again. The clay soldiers were gone.

The Doctor picked up one of the devices he had constructed, examining it thoroughly. He sighed and dropped it to the floor, then looked up and realized that everyone was looking to him. "Out of here, quickly! Row by row." The Doctor patted the shoulder of the guard in front of him. "You first."

He didn't have to tell them twice. The row of guards who had been acting as a human shield ran up the stairs, two at a time. When the last two started up, the Doctor looked to Master Zhao. "Us next. I need to see the situation outside. This is the part where you may need to carry him." Li Si and the Doctor went first, Zhao Gao next, carrying the emperor. Pandora and Gan De next, then Wang Changdong. The next group of guards were already lining up to follow him.

When they got outside, they found the first group of guards working with flint to re-light the torches. The Doctor pulled out his sonic, and activated its torch beam. He shone it around, but could find no statues. He turned to Masters Zhao and Li. "Take him to the palace. Stay with him personally. I'm afraid you are getting no sleep tonight. Post guards at every entrance. Three of them at least. Have them announce it when they need to blink so no more than one at a time has his eyes closed. Understood? Now go!"

The Doctor turned without waiting for a response. He moved to the group of guards at the first torch and touched his sonic to it. The tip glowed green momentarily, then the torch burst into flames. "Use this to light the others. Start a fire when you are done," he said, then strode into the center of the clearing between temple and housing. He stood there, staring into the surrounding darkness.

Pandora joined him. "Whatever I'm thinking, it's worse, isn't it?" she asked.

The Doctor broke from his thoughts to look at her. "Hmm? No. Well, I don't know. I guess I'm just steeling myself for what we'll find in there."

"In where?"

The Doctor raised his arm and reactivated his sonic. The torch light came on, and Pandora followed the beam. The work house was there, with the doors off their hinges. The two guards lay unmoving in the dirt outside.

"Oh," Pandora said, barely over a whisper. She wrapped her arm around the Doctor's and gave it a bit of a squeeze. "We'll go together."

They walked to the entrance of the workhouse, sparing a glance for the guards. Their eyes were open, and their necks bent at unnatural angles. The Doctor quickly pointed his torch away, into the interior of the structure.

It was eerily empty and silent. The oil lamps were out, and motes of dust swirled in the torchlight everywhere he pointed it. No clay army. No guards. Not even any bodies. "How many guards were in here? A couple hundred?" Pandora asked.

"At least five."

"And the Angels?"

"Somewhere north of eight thousand. And that's not counting the horses."

"And that's a lot, right?"

"Three could wreak havoc on the land."

"So, what are we going to do?"

The Doctor chuckled at his own gallows humor. "Keep our wits about us, and our eyes open."

* * *

"The ceremony will continue, as scheduled," Li Si said with finality.

The night had passed without further incident, and there were no reported sightings of the Angels. A tally was taken in the morning, and only the two guards were reported dead. However, in addition to the six hundred guards on the interior of the workhouse, there were another nine hundred twenty artisans missing in the morning. A search of the houses suggested that a large number of those had run away, since their meager belongings were missing as well.

" _Are you out of your mind?_ " the Doctor responded.

"What my advisor means to say," Pandora interjected, "is could you perhaps reconsider. With this army of clay soldiers bent on stopping him, there are dark forces at work that should be taken into account."

"Your wise counsel, madam, is of course appreciated," Li Si said, obviously bristling at the Doctor's outburst, despite his polite words. "But, it has been accounted for. The emperor will protect China as he always has. And it has to be tonight."

"But you've seen what he'll become," the Doctor said. "How can you unleash that on China and call it protection?"

"Madam, restrain your advisor, or I will have his head!" Li Si said, turning red and straightening to his full, impressive height.

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something more, but Pandora put an arm on him. "Despite his tone, he voices our concerns as well."

Xu Fu rapped his cane on the wooden floor, and the others turned toward him. "The stars are in alignment tonight alone. The calculations are correct. If not tonight, it will not be for six hundred thousand years. I don't know about you _mistress_ ," he said pointedly, "but the emperor doesn't have that kind of patience." He turned his gaze on the Doctor, and drilled into him with them.

"Quite right, Master Xu," Li Si said. "And you cannot compare that _thing_ to the emperor. We drew that creature from the stars, it was a wild thing without concern for the people. The Emperor Qin Shi Huang will govern the people through his descendants. Eternally, with wisdom and strength. To suggest his rule would be otherwise is traitorous."

"Well said," Zhao Gao added.

The Doctor sighed. "So, it's the lot of you." He turned to Pandora. "Shades of Barrophine, all over again."

He lapsed into silence, chewing on his fingernails. Finally, he spoke up. "Alright, but it will have to be just the emperor and you, Master Xu. I will need the rest of you to defend against the Angels and keep them from interrupting."

"That will be acceptable," Master Xu said with a sly smile and a bow.

* * *

"The Angels will do everything in their power to keep the emperor from becoming another Weft, now that they know that's what he's doing," the Doctor said to Pandora as they left the palace. "We need to gain an advantage." He started dragging the toes of one shoe through the rocky path.

"What sort of advantage?" she asked.

"Do you remember how this legendary blonde woman was supposed to be psychic? Communicated with dragons?" he asked. He bent down and picked up a couple of stones. He discarded most of them, and put a red one in his hoodie pocket.

"Yeah…" Pandora said cautiously.

"We're going to teach you to talk to the Angels." He started digging through the pockets of his cargo pants, one after another. "Hold these, will you?" he asked, holding out a collection of junk.

Pandora held her box awkwardly between her legs, and took the items with both hands. There was a yo-yo, a harmonica, a bunch of odd electronic components, a troll doll, a spool of copper wire, a ball of old receipts from several worlds, a coin purse, and a couple other items she couldn't even identify.

"Ah," he said, and pulled his hand back out of his pocket. He held up his thumb and forefinger, and for a moment, Pandora didn't even realize there was anything in it. Then he put it in her ear.

"Hey!" she shouted, shying away.

"Don't fuss. It's just an earbud. Give me your phone."

She handed his pile of junk back to the Doctor, then reached into her robe and took her phone out of her bra. "I don't think you're going to get any service out here," she said.

The Doctor stuffed handfuls of items into his pockets, then accepted the phone. "I did tell you you had universal roaming, and I meant it, but for our purposes, we don't need it." He unlocked it and started tapping rapidly, narrating as he went. "First we have to pair the earbud, so you can hear through it. You can talk through it too, by the way. It will pick up the vibrations in your jawbone as you speak. Okay. There. Now this thing has a radio app, yeah? Never mind, I found it."

He kept tapping at it, and the screen went back. Green writing filled the screen as the Doctor typed. "Normally, the Angels don't speak, but normally they don't kill either. They just blast you into the past and feed off the paradox. Any time they've gone through the trouble of murdering someone, it's been to send a message. Sometimes quite literally. There!" The black screen went away and her radio app came back up.

"I've re-coded the app so that it can be tuned to the spot between stations, the area that's usually just static. No one wants to hear that, so these apps are made to skip over it. That's where the Angels' voice will be. Say something to them." He held out the phone toward her.

"Hello, Angels?" she said tentatively. There was a crackle of static, and she could see the tuner dial moving rapidly forward, then back, scanning the entire length of the dial. It stopped moving, but all Pandora could hear was static. She shrugged at the Doctor.

"Try again," he said.

"Angels, I invoke the right of parlay," she said more firmly. The dial started scanning again, then came to a stop.

"Hello, Doctor," came a voice in her ear. Pandora's blood ran cold.

"This is Pandora, actually. Who am I talking to?" Pandora asked. The Doctor offered her the phone again, and she took it this time, stashing it back in her bra.

"Guardsman Chen, mistress," the voice said.

Pandora looked questioningly at the Doctor. "He said he's Guardsman Chen…"

"Yeah, they sort of talk through the dead," the Doctor said.

"That's right, mistress. The Angels are making me talk for them. They want you to know they're coming for you."

"I can't do this! Doctor, you talk to them!" Pandora said. She dug the earbud out of her ear.

"I'm not the psychic one! The people will accept you talking to no one, and hearing mysterious voices, not me," he said, taking a step back.

"But they're making death threats! I don't know how to handle this!" She held the earbud out insistently.

"Be strong. The Angels don't know who they're dealing with."

Pandora stood there, angrily holding out the earbud, then she shoved it back in her ear. "The Doctor's going to stop you!" she shouted.

"I didn't mean me," the Doctor said.

Pandora couldn't help but smile for a moment when she realized who he did mean.

"They're coming for him too," Guardsman Chen said. "They say they'll speak through him soon, and I can rest."

"You tell them, over my dead body!"

"Pandora, this isn't useful. Tell them that I'm taking care of things and they should stay away."

"The Doctor can handle the emperor. He's got things sorted. If you get in the way, you're likely to get zapped. Tell them that, Guardsman Chen."

"Good. Well done," the Doctor said.

"The emperor is vulnerable until tonight," Guardsman Chen said. "And we've got crossbows."

Pandora perked up. "Thank you, Chen, I think that's what we needed to know." She pulled out the earbud so the Angels couldn't hear her. "They're going to use their weapons tonight."

The Doctor smiled. "Then we'd better be prepared."

* * *

The Doctor was a flurry of activity. He set the remaining workers with the task of dismantling the shanty town and the workhouse. He drew a map in the dirt, with the palace off to the side and the temple at the rear. "We need to have clear lines of sight all around, so we have to take down all structures that will block that. Anything made of wood, break it apart and pile it up here, here, and here." He drew three big Xs on the ground. "We'll make bonfires so big that no gust of wind will blow them out. Then anything that won't burn needs to be leveled. There were a lot of hammers in there, I want you to take those forges apart, all but one. We'll get to that later. Anything that can't be quickly destroyed needs to be piled up here, at the side of the palace. Anvils, tools, personal belongings, everything else, we need them out of the way so we can move freely. Likewise, any pits, let's fill them in. Everybody got that?"

The workers all went to their tasks. A number of them took charge, organizing areas of related disciplines. The Doctor grabbed one of the workers by the arm as he was about to leave. He indicated the man's leather bracers. "You're a smith, right? You work with metal and know how to identify copper and tin bearing rocks?" The man indicated that he did. "Pick one of the forges, the one that burns the hottest if there is one, the biggest otherwise. That's the one we're keeping. Gather up about five more smiths." The Doctor dug into his pocket and pulled out the red rock. He placed it in the man's hand. "Search the area. Find me more rocks like this one. Wherever you put the rocks you pulled out of the temple will probably have a lot of them. Once you've gathered up about two baskets full, bring them near the forge and break them down to about this size. Go."

He looked up at Pandora and stood, brushing dust from his hands. "Now we need to visit Master Xu."

"What's the plan?" Pandora asked as they walked toward the palace.

"I'm going to turn the Angels' strength against them. For that, I'm going to need a sizable chunk of iron. Unfortunately, they haven't discovered iron smelting yet."

"Aren't you the same guy who's always worried about upsetting the timelines?"

"First, they aren't far off. A hundred years or less. Second, it's not like I'm handing them a recipe for hardened steel. Bloom iron will be fine for my purposes. And third, it's likely to look like magic because I'm going to use some of Master Xu's ingredients, and even if they did copy me, it's unsustainable. They can't isolate enough magnesium to commercialize this process."

"Aha. And what would you like me to do while you're doing that?"

The Doctor didn't even need to think. "You know what they said. They'll be using their crossbows, so we'll need shields. Think tower shields like the Romans used to carry. Three long planks of wood with a crosspiece they can carry it by. Organize the workers to make them from the dismantled houses. Next, collect the weapons they've been making for the Terracotta Warriors. Swords are better than spears, spears are better than arrows. Collect those hammers too. Get some of the workers to help you. Those are even better than swords. The point is to hand one to every worker who stands with us tonight. If you can get the keys to the armory, that'll help too."

"I'm on it!" Pandora said, and ran off toward the workhouse that people were already starting to tear apart.

* * *

The camp was a completely different place by nightfall. The ramshackle houses were torn down, and in their place were three enormous piles of wood. The people's paltry possessions were stacked neatly next to the palace, and the workmen's tools were in a section of their own, anvils, tongs, bellows, leather-working tools and ceramic jars of pigments.

The workers had gotten a crash course in soldiering. They learned the commands, formations, stances, and effective swings of the profession. Li Si and Zhao Gao both had some experience in training and commanding soldiers, and had put their skills to work.

The Doctor had finished his work at the entrance to the temple. He'd made a frame around the entrance with a sort of dragon motif at the top, and an iron pole extending up from its center. He'd managed to repurpose the devices he'd used the night before. As he'd explained it, "The dimensional breaches have been fried beyond repair, but the temporal isolators may still function. Of course, they'll be no use without their power source…" That was all Pandora got out of him before someone's shouting pulled them away.

Some of the workmen were tearing down one of the houses and found a terracotta archer inside. They kept it in sight while others brought chains. They dragged it out into the middle of the clearing where they were breaking it up with hammers. Pretty soon, everyone was getting involved.

"Stop!" the Doctor shouted. He ran out into the midst of the confused workers. This won't do you any good! They can't be killed like this."

He looked down at the Angel. It was in pieces. The head had been broken off, and the left side of its face pulverized. Its arms were each in several pieces, and they'd smashed up its midsection until it was broken clean through. It was hollow inside, and someone had dragged the leg section back up toward the head and smashed the left leg to powder. "Someone bring me a blanket. It's best you all see this."

Someone left the gathered crowd and returned shortly with a blanket. "Master Li! Master Zhao! Master Wang! Come see this as well." The crowd parted for them, and the Doctor said. "Now back up, all of you." The whole group took five good paces back, and the Doctor looked around at the hundreds of faces, watching intently.

He shook out the blanket, then whipped the blanket out over the Weeping Angel and let it settle to the ground. The moment the far end touched, he yanked it back off.

The crowd gasped. The archer was whole again, and down on one knee in a firing position. "Magic!" Master Wang said.

"This is not magic!" the Doctor called out to the crowd. He folded the blanket as he spoke. "This is what we face tonight. _This_ is what they do. These are the Weeping Angels, and when they come for us tonight, they will kill the emperor before his apotheosis. They will attack in great numbers, and they will not stop for a broken arm, or even if they are smashed to bits. The only thing that will stop them is if you keep them in your sight. Break them apart, sure, but don't look away. Not even for a moment." He handed the blanket back to the man who brought it to him. "Bind this one in those chains and stake it to the ground. I don't want it getting back to its friends," he said and walked away.

After that demonstration, the group worked with renewed focus. It was there amongst them while they pulled down houses and built shields. It was there while Pandora distributed weaponry, and while Masters Zhao and Li trained the troops. It was there when lamp oil was poured over the bonfires, and it was there when the sun set.

It seemed to Pandora, it wore a bit of a smile that hadn't been there earlier.

They lit torches and ate. They waited.

A couple hours later, the emperor's personal guard brought him out of the palace and to the temple. He didn't look at all well. In fact, if the apotheosis didn't happen this evening, he was likely to die anyway. "You bring him in, then you return here. We need every able body. Yeah?" the Doctor said.

Without a word spoken, they acknowledged that they'd be back.

"Light them up!" the Doctor yelled. He stood next to the first pile of wood and activated his sonic. The wood pile immediately burst into flames. A worker carried a burning slat to the second bonfire, then the third.

"Shields to the front!" A hundred workers ran out into the clearing to form a semi-circle around the front of the temple, shield to shield.

"Archers!" Three hundred workers and soldiers ran out behind the line of shields and took a knee, crossbows at the ready.

"Swords!" Six hundred men with swords ran to stand in two staggered lines behind the archers.

"Spears!" The remaining men, both workers and soldiers took their place with the swordsmen in front of them, and the bonfires at their backs. The Doctor paced behind the men. "Keep an eye out! If you have to blink, tell your neighbors so that no two blink at the same time!"

"I see one!" someone called out.

The Doctor looked around for the source. It was a shield-bearer. He ran to the man's side and looked where he was pointing. Just visible on the edge of the firelight was a clay figure of a spearman, his hands empty. "Good man," the Doctor said, patting him on the shoulder. "Now, you lot. Any moment now, someone else is going to spot another. Then a whole lot more will. Don't be tempted to look away."

No sooner had he instructed the men, than someone shouted out, "I see one!" The Doctor ran off looking for the new spotter. Calls soon came out from all quarters. They were surrounded by a line of clay soldiers.

"Remember your training! Hold the line! They cannot advance while you see them!" the Doctor shouted.

Master Zhao approached and spoke in low tones. "So why do they surround us? Are they trying to draw us out? I cannot see the tactical advantage of standing there when they can no longer move."

"They're testing how far they can get before we see them. Now they know where to position their archers," the Doctor said grimly.

Moments later, the air was thick with crossbow bolts. "Shields up!" the Doctor yelled. The shield bearers at the front lifted their shields, and everyone behind crouched lower and closer. Arrowheads thunked into wood in a staccato rhythm, and men cried out as the odd bolt found a gap between the shields. A second volley followed inhumanly fast.

"Torches, now!" the Doctor commanded. The three shield bearers at the very ends of the line pulled back, and two men carried torches forward. They threw them onto the ground at each end, and fire sprung up, spreading outward in a semicircle behind the frontline of Angels. The clay archers were backlit by the new illumination, frozen in the act of reloading their crossbows. A line of swordsmen could be seen behind them, punctuated with the occasional cavalry unit.

"Push the line forward!"

The human army moved forward as a single organism. They closed half the distance between themselves and the front line of Angels, then set their shields again. "Swordsmen forward!" the Doctor yelled, and the shield bearers made gaps in the line. The swordsmen shouted a war cry and ran out to hack chunks out of the line of clay spearmen unopposed.

Once the spearmen had been reduced to so many shards of pottery, the men ran back behind the shields, and the army closed ranks.

In the still and silence of this eerie battlefield, they could hear the sound of chanting coming from the temple behind them. Pandora turned, a look of disbelief on her face. She could hear hundreds of voices, but she knew it was only the emperor and the sorcerer inside there. Then came the sound of the drums. A deep booming rhythm that reverberated through the ground beneath her feet.

The army began to cheer, raising their weapons in celebration of their victory over the Angels, and their emperor's imminent apotheosis.

Then the wind picked up. A cold and fierce wind blew in from the east, whipping the firelight into a dance of shadows. It continued to grow in intensity until the line of fire behind the archers parted in the middle and sputtered.

"Fall back to the bonfires!" the Doctor yelled, amid a renewed volley of crossbow bolts.

The army creeped backward, keeping low behind the shields until they could just see the piles of broken clay soldiers. The wind continued to howl, growing in intensity, but proved to be unable to extinguish the bonfires.

Soldiers began to spot a second line of Angels forming behind the clay remnants. The wind slowed, and died down.

A cheer went up again. There were those who hadn't actually believed that they could win against this supernatural enemy, but now the Angels seemed to be giving up. Workers who had never held a weapon before in their lives began hugging one another, while the more sober soldiers in their midst remembered to keep a wary eye on the enemy.

Then the rain began to fall.

* * *

Thunder struck a great peel that interrupted the rhythm of the drums from inside the temple. Lightning flashed, giving the army a momentary glimpse of the thousands of Angels beyond the firelight, just waiting for their chance to attack.

The rain fell first in droplets, then in curtains, and then in waves. The bonfires stood against the storm's fury for a short time, steam rising from the charred timbers, but the ring of light surrounding the army grew steadily smaller. Soldiers kept turning to look nervously at the hissing fires. They retreated, keeping inside the line of the sputtering fire's safety.

Soon the fires went out altogether.

Lightning struck again, and the Angels were upon them. Their faces twisted in horrible screams, the line of reconstituted spearmen were reaching across the line of shields. A moment later, absent of the storm's brief light, the sound of cracking wood filled the night. Men's screams were cut unnaturally short. Lighting struck again and the entire row of shield bearers was gone - not dead, but missing. Angels were among the men, mostly fighting hand to hand, but a few held swords.

The screams of men were everywhere.

"Retreat!" the Doctor yelled. We've done what we can! It's up to the emperor now!" People dropped their weapons and ran for the palace.

The Doctor stood with the bright beam of his sonic screwdriver shining into the battlefield, giving the soldiers time to retreat. "Run! Run!" he shouted, urging them on. A thousand clay figures stood frozen in battle poses, and the Doctor stood unblinking. Pandora got away, then Masters Li and Zhao. The emperor's personal guard refused to leave the battlefield. With swords drawn, they took up position blocking the entrance to the temple.

The Doctor's sonic cut out briefly. He banged it against his open palm, and it came back on.

Several thousand terracotta soldiers filled the space between him and the temple. They extended up the stairs, six wide, to the opening of the ceremonial chamber, where they faced off with the emperor's personal guard, swords in hand.

They were in the act of swinging their weapons when the Doctor's sonic cut out again. It continued to buzz, but gave off no light. He absently put it away in his hoodie pocket. "Come on, come on, come on!" he said through gritted teeth, peering into the near-perfect darkness.

Lightning tore the darkness apart, striking the Doctor's lightning rod. There was a loud boom that shook the earth, then a reverberation that spread throughout the area. As it passed, each Angel lit up momentarily and hissed like air escaping from an aeresol can. Thunder carried off into the distance, and the rain slowed, then stopped.

The Doctor stood, soaking wet and panting. He wiped his plastered hair out of his eyes. He could make out a few shapes nearby him, but they didn't look like they had moved. He patted down his pockets, looking for his sonic. He couldn't find it in his soaked jacket. He looked down as he reached into his inside pocket. It was there. When he looked back up, there was a figure directly next to him, and he jumped.

It was Pandora. "Did it work?" she asked.

He held out his sonic, pointed at the temple entrance. The light came on this time. The Angels were all still where they were. "It worked," he said with a hint of surprise.

The others started filtering back. "We won?" someone asked.

The Doctor didn't answer right away. He let more of them gather around, and took the opportunity to straighten up a bit. He took off his hoodie and wrung it out, then put it back on. He addressed the gathering crowd. "The Angels are inert! They are not dead, they're just low on energy. Too low to attack, or even to move, for the time being. They will eventually gather energy from the atmosphere, so they will have to be dealt with."

"What do we do?" Master Zhao asked.

The Doctor just gave Pandora a look. After a moment she picked up on it. "You bury them. Deep as you can. Ten feet at least. And do it straight away. Start burying them tomorrow, and don't stop until they're all in the ground. Don't bother breaking them up, they'll just reform, and you'll waste time doing it."

"And what about the emperor? Did he succeed?" Master Li asked.

"Yeah, he got what he was after. What he deserved," the Doctor said. "And the temple is his realm now. Anyone who enters will be destroyed."

Pandora added, "Bury that as well. It is your responsibility to make sure that future generations don't get curious and go in there."

"It's time we go, mistress," the Doctor said.

The crowd had a million questions, but the Doctor took Pandora's arm and turned away. Master Zhao stepped in. "Who are you to question Mistress Pandora?" The crowd quieted, and the two left.

They picked their way through the statues that filled what was so recently a battlefield. "So, what did you do? I thought the bonfires and the oil trench were the plan against the Weeping Angels. But the lightning strike?"

"I managed to repurpose the temporal isolators from the dimensional transducer, but I had no way of powering them. I needed a massive amount of temporal energy, and a bit of current. Roughly one point twenty-one gigawatts. For the current, I set up a lightning rod on the gateway. But I had no way of guaranteeing a storm. When the workers caught the Angel, it was a godsend. I let it listen to our plans so it could send them all back to the others. We needed all the Angels gathered here, and we needed a fire so big they couldn't blow it out. They provided the temporal energy I needed, and then they brought the storm to us."

They'd reached the base of the hill and started climbing. "And the part where you didn't let anyone else in on that plan?"

The Doctor stopped walking. "Pandora, it's very technical. Who do you think was going to understand that plan? By the time I managed to explain it so that they'd understand, the Angels would have figured it all out. Besides, how were we going to get people to hold up shields if they knew they were all likely to… Well, you know."

"Yeah, I do know. So what did their sacrifice gain us? What did those 'temporal isolators' do?"

The Doctor began walking again. "The ceremonial chamber inside the temple is now a separate time stream, independent of ours, forever just a moment in the future, like the Tardis. The emperor is now a Weft, assuming the ceremony succeeded, or dead otherwise. Either way, he can never penetrate into our time stream. The dangerous thing is the boundary. That gateway I set up is the nexus of our time and his. If anyone were to ever cross the threshold, they would be locked forever in a single moment of time. Never aging, never dying, forever experiencing now. It would be the worst form of torture I could imagine."

"And the Terracotta Army? They end up digging that up one day."

"Yes, but most of them are kept in a museum right here, where their temporal energy will continue to be syphoned off to keep the temple isolated. Only a few ever leave China. If they don't let you take pictures of them, now you know why. Someone remembers. The image of an Angel becomes, itself, an Angel. If we ever have to deal with them, we'll be ready."

They reached the top of the hill, and the Doctor pulled out his cell phone. He dialed in the retrieval code, and the grinding sound of the Tardis engines echoed across the valley. The little blue box appeared right where they'd left it.

"Sun's coming up," Pandora pointed out. "Hard to believe that was a whole night."

They began down the hill. About half way down, they heard a far off voice call out, "Mistress Pandora!"

She turned around. "Master Wang!" she said in surprise.

He was running down the hill after them, a long scroll of paper trailing behind him. When he finally caught up with them, he was too out of breath to speak. He rested with his hands on his knees until he got his breathing under control, so Pandora did the talking.

"Master Wang, we will make sure that the name Wang Changdong will live on in history. The great architect of the Emperor's Tomb, and the creator of the Terracotta Army."

"Please don't," he said, breathing just about under control. "Violence and bloodshed. It's not what I, what any artist, would want to be known for. I want to be known for my portrait of you. It will be my finest work."

Pandora blushed. "I'm honored." She gave a slight curtsy.

"That's the reason I had to catch you. One of the rubbings you made came out blurry." He showed the sheet of paper to them, where one edge became indistinct. "I wanted to make sure I got it accurately. Would you please do another? It's the rear-top-right."

She looked up at the Doctor for a moment. He went on to unlock the Tardis. "Sure," she said. "How about you do it. I've got nowhere to set it down." She turned the box around, and held it so the top-rear was exposed to him.

"Thank you so much," he said. He laid the paper across the triptych, and rubbed the charcoal over its surface, careful to keep the paper steady and the edges crisp. "All done. Thank you again."

"Thank you, Master Wang," she said, smiling broadly. She waved, and ran to catch up with the Doctor. They stepped inside the Tardis and closed the door.

Master Wang waved them off, then stood in stunned silence, watching the Tardis disappear. He continued standing there until the echos of the departing engine had stopped bouncing off the valley walls. Then he lifted the pieces of paper, the old rubbing and the new, and he held them up to the light of the rising sun. He did a complete double take, and separated the two, looking back and forth between them. "The carvings have changed…" he said.


End file.
